Main menu

Jeff Gordon is sixth racer to get a highway named after him in Charlotte

May 25, 2012

A 1.6-mile stretch of Interstate 85 from Charlotte into Cabarrus County near Charlotte Motor Speedway has been named the Jeff Gordon Expressway. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Four-time NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon has become the sixth stock-car racer to have a section of North Carolina public highway named in his honor. On Friday, the N.C. Department of Transportation dedicated a 1.6-mile stretch of Interstate 85 from Charlotte into Cabarrus County near Charlotte Motor Speedway as the Jeff Gordon Expressway.

Gordon has 85 career wins, making the I-85 connection appropriate--until he wins again. He joins championship-winning owners Richard Childress and Junior Johnson and championship-winning drivers Richard Petty and the late Benny Parsons and Dale Earnhardt with a section of public road named for them.

A three-time Coca-Cola 600 winner (his first career win was in the 1994 race), Gordon will start 23rd for Sunday night's 400-lap, 600-miler. Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne and Dale Earnhardt Jr. will start third, seventh and 12th. All told, Hendrick Motorsports has nine wins in NASCAR's longest race, three each by Gordon and Johnson, two by Darrell Waltrip and one by Casey Mears.